Approaches We Integrate

During the early years, a large heaping of play, small dose of letters/phonics, and hours spent reading.

First and foremost, we want to encourage critical and free thinking within our children. We want them to have the freedom to explore and question and wonder. We want to provide the resources on subjects that interest them.

Classical Education is the approach we most identify with. Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study (The Grammar Stage). In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments (The Logic Stage). In the high school years, they learn to express themselves (The Rhetoric Stage). This classical pattern is called the trivium. To the classical mind, all knowledge is interrelated. A classical education meets this challenge by taking history as its organizing outline — beginning with the ancients and progressing forward to the moderns in history, science, literature, art and music.

The twelve years of education consist of three repetitions of the same four-year pattern: Ancients, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, and Modern Times. The child studies these four time periods at varying levels — simple for grades 1-4, more difficult in grades 5-8, and taking an even more complex approach in grades 9-12.

The other subject areas of the curriculum are linked to history studies.This pattern lends coherence to the study of history, science, and literature — subjects that are too often fragmented and confusing. The pattern widens and deepens as the student progresses in maturity and learning.

This method is known to be rigorous. In order to tailor this method to our family, we would like to spend more time learning and experimenting in science. I'm not sure what subject(s) we're going to have to spend less time on in order to accomplish this, but I will continue to adapt and report on what we are doing.

I reference The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise a lot! This book is essential for any family wanting to homeschool with this approach. It is a wonderful resource. Our family, however, will not be following the book's methods and outlines unwaveringly. 

Charlotte Mason is a humanities- based approach with heavy emphasis on literature. Children are not exposed (much) to textbooks, but rather to "living books" which make the subject matter come to life- novels about the Civil War are read, for example, to explore that time period. Classical literature is also emphasized in this approach, with parents doing a lot of read-alouds while the child is still young and developing their reading abilities. My favorite part about the philosophy is the emphasis on spending time outdoors, interacting with nature firsthand and learning the living ways of the world.

Our homeschool is secular in nature, although we highly encourage religious literacy.